Country: United Kingdom
Spotify link (Entire album, 2011 remastered edition)
YouTube link (We Subside)
YouTube link (Vapour Trails)
YouTube link (Resident Alien)
YouTube link (Remember Us)
Variations on a Dream, by the British prog group The Pineapple Thief, can be considered a cult classic. The group was formed at the end of the 1990's and had at this point released two previous albums: Abducting the Unicorn (1999) and 137 (2001). It wasn't until their third album that they made their real breakthrough, and deservedly so.
Were the entire album as exceptionally great as its standout tracks We Subside, Vapour Trails, Resident Alien and Remember Us, it would easily have earned the honour of ProgActive's Very Strong Recommendation. But, even as it is, any album that contains four masterpieces clocking well over half an hour, is most definitely worth checking out even though the rest of the album varies only between very good and satisfactory. The album may contain ten tracks in total, but it is these four that use well over half of its running time.
Since their formation, The Pineapple Thief has really been one man's band. The founder, Bruce Soord has always been the unquestionable artistic leader. Under his direction, the group has until now released a further five albums: 10 Stories Down (2005), Little Man (2006), What We Have Sown (2007), Tightly Unwound (2008) and Someone Here is Missing (2010). Right now, we are less than three weeks away from the release of The Pineapple Thief's ninth studio album All the Wars.
While most of the recent albums have shown exceptional quality here and there, the group has never truly surpassed their third outing. The opening track of Variations on a Dream, We Subside, is one of the greatest masterpieces of the 21st century and is also a definite fan favourite. I must say that I don't really appreciate the silly lyrics but the music is unbelievable. At the beginning, The Pineapple Thief sounds like a classical music ensemble and while a guitar rock instumentation is added later on, we end the track as it began: as something that might have been composed by Bach or Beethoven.
In much the same way, the album's third track Vapour Trails suffers from almost meaningless lyrics but displays another version of the group's masterful sound. The beautiful melody is this time played with regular, acoustic guitar driven instumentation, with no classical music influences present. The sixth track, Resident Alien, is a beautiful instumental that once again employs string arrangements.
The original release contained only ten tracks and also had a different cover artwork from last year's remastered edition, pictured above. This is how the original release looked like:
The album's closing track Remember Us is the other undying masterpiece on it, in addition to We Subside. Clocking over 16 minutes, this magnum opus is associated with 9/11 for reasons I am not aware of. Yes, sure, the album was released two years after the terrorist attack that brought down the WTC in New York, and its tone is sad, sombre even, so I guess it may be a 9/11 song even though that isn't really mentioned in its lyrics. Here they are in their entirety:
I know everything
We say no
But it doesn't mean a thing
Follow everything
But we know
It doesn't mean a thing.
Come on, it's over
Remember us when we're gone
It's over, for sure
And that's it for a 16-minute song. I see no reference to one particular terrorist attack, but be that as it may, it certainly works as a sort of a requiem to its victims. The mood is extremely sad and the melody is incredibly beautiful. Variations on a Dream may end to a very sorrowful note, but is nonetheless one of the very best albums released during the new century.
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